From Portland
Recent Iraq War protest in Portland, Oregon
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Filed under: Uncategorized
Chuck Schumer, a very smart man who engineered the Democratic takeover of the Senate in the immediate past elections, and who often has notable quotables, notes about Jim Webb, Senator-elect from Virginia:
“He’s not a typical politician. He really has deep convictions.”
Follow that to its logical conclusion.
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The new MSNBC-McClatchy poll shows moderate incumbent Republican Lincoln Chafee surging in the final days of the campaign, a surprising turn around that could be enough to close the door to a Democratic takeover. Not to mention a late, characteristic surge by Mr. Burns of Montana.
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Technorati Tags: Lincoln, Chafee, Sheldon, Whitehouse, Rhode, Island, Senate, Election, Midterm, Moderate, Republicans, Democrats,
“Our ideas were right, but our enablers screwed it up!” The meek attempt at apology from the guys who gave us Iraq.
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Technorati Tags: David, Rose, Neo, Culpa, Vanity, Fair, Neoconservatives, Richard, Perle, Ken, Adelman, David, Frum, Bush, Administration, Iraq, War, Dick, Cheney, Donald, Rumsfeld,
I’m watching Elizabeth Dole on Meet the Press right now and it’s as though the woman is on crack, high from the huge amout of sugar intake from drinking way too much of the Kool-Aid.
Also, nothing she says makes any sense. It’s almost hard not to feel bad for her.
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Technorati Tags: Elizabeth, Dole, Meet, the, Press, Republicans, Democrats, Emmanual, Schumer, Reynolds, Midterm, Elections, Senate, House,
After the relatively harmless but momentarily frightening incident of John Kerry’s bad(ly interpreted) joke about the Bush administration, it’s particularly clear that the major challenge for Democrats going into the last 48 hours of this election cycle is to avoid derailing their own gravy train. Democrats are going to win the House; the Senate looks increasingly winnable. The trick is to simply allow the Republicans to destroy themselves, and it’s true that the GOP has been eating its own babies at least since but probably well before the Foley affair.
Thomas Ferraro has a quick piece in Reuters today demonstrating the new Rovian Democratic strategy for winning elections: Not Losing. His thesis is that Democrats historically fuck it up and have therefore remained in the Minority party on the Hill. I think that’s a wee bit of an oversimplification of electoral dynamics in America, particularly since 1994. But whatever. I think the important point now is that the ground has shifted. Support for conservative ideology is dead, in retreat or in hiding. That all Democrats have to do is to avoid saying something idiotic enough to turn people off is, finally, a positive remark about the American voter.
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Technorati Tags: Democrats, Republicans, Reuters, Midterm, Elections, Politics, House, Senate, GOP, Thomas, Ferraro, Reuters, Bush,
Filed under: Blog
I recognize that I’ve been completely negligent with respect to maintaining the blog, often for very poor reasons (laziness, lack of interest) since I’m not particularly swamped with other areas of my life. Work is fine, but not overwhelming; my social life leaves a tad to be desired; I’m finally settled back into Washington.
I’ll make a more robust effort at contributing meaningful and/or interesting comment on the site. As usual, feel free to contact me with suggestions or observations, and of course, comments always welcome.
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Jim Talent said about his democratic opponent, former prosecutor Claire McCaskill, on Meet the Press today this:
She said to a group of her supporters in Paris. . .
I don’t know what this means but when asked directly whether if he had been told ahead of time that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq would he have voted to invade: he actually said yes. Yes! ”Well, he wanted them [WMDs], Tim.” What a riot.
McCaskill I thought performed very well, as far as being a terrorist-sympathizing cut-and-runner goes.
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Although I hardly thought it possible, the esteemed Pat Buchanan, failed presidential candidate, veritable hate-spewing commentator and national clown, has sunk to new lows in bigoted idiocy.
Not only is Mark Foley a “flamer,” according to Buchanan, but Nancy Pelosi “has been marching with pedophiles” and consequently has no “credibility” on denouncing Foley’s sexual deviancy and the House Republican leadership’s knowing and willful lack of response to it. Also, Hastert didn’t know Foley well, despite the fact that Foley was a fairly influential, gregarious House Republican who’d been around for over a decade. Also, the Republican caucus had no idea that Foley was ”this flamer”, as if his being gay is relevant. And by the way, everyone on the the Hill and off the Hill knew that Foley was gay (not that there’s anything wrong with that). Also, the media doesn’t care about kids because they sat on the story. What cracked-out planet does Buchanan live on, and why is he allowed on television?
Watch the horror show for yourself, courtesy of Wonkette:
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Technorati Tags: Mark, Foley, Joe, Scarborough, Pat, Buchanan, MSNBC, Page, Scandal, Washington, Midterm, Elections, Flamer
reveal definitively that Ken Mehlman sucks.
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Technorati Tags: Ken, Mehlman, Jack, Abramoff, Tody, Rudy, Lobbying, Scandals, Washington, Choctaw, Tribe, Talking, Points, Memo, Muckracker
The NYT reports breathlessly today that
Six weeks before Election Day, th Democrats suddenly face a map with unexpected opportunities in their battle for control of the Senate.
Suddenly, a map! with opportunities! Democrats could win! Ken Mehlperson can relax now, what with a New York Times reporter bespeaking doom for his party, there is certain to be an uptick in the republican donating spirit.
Of course the rest of the piece systematically deconstructs the actual likelihood of what is merely suggested in the lead. Take for example:
a shift in the Senate was always considered a long shot this year . . . [but a Democratic takeover] is at least plausible.
“Anybody who says there’s no way the Democrats could regain control of the Senate, that’s just wishful thinking,” said Glen Bolger, a Republican pollster active in numerous House and Senate races. “But there’s a long way between could and would, and the Republican resource advantage is just now coming to bear.”
Republicans say they have the money not only to defend their seats, but also to put Democrats on the defensive in Maryland, New Jersey and elsewhere.
Mr. [Chuck] Schumer said, “The 800-pound gorilla is the money the R.N.C. is pouring into those [Ohio, Missouri, and Tennessee] races.”
And so on and so forth. What the article does sufficiently well, since it quotes so extensively from GOP operatives, is mingle the increasingly less remote prospect of a Democratic Senate takeover with a tinge of Republican campaign confidence. It would be a terrific fundraising letter, and I’m sure it will be.
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Technorati Tags: Midterm, Elections, Republicans, Democrats, Politics, Campaign, Senate, New, York, Times, Democratic, Takeover
Filed under: Environmental, Media, Midterm Elections, Politics, Uncategorized
The Post has the obligatory story examining whether or not Jim Webb is, like his republican Senate opponent, somehow racist (we already know he’s a woman-hating “fiction writer”). Whether or not Webb at one time used an inappropriate racial slur is a far cry from cutting off the head of a deer and shoving it into the mailbox of the nearest black family. One is insensitive; the other is assault.
But take a look at the juvenile pissing contest between the representatives on each campaign:
From the Webb Camp:
“They are pathetic individuals. They are beneath it. They are slime,” she said. “Here we are trying to talk about the issues. They are completely and totally desperate.”
And representing George Allen, from the right:
“They wouldn’t know an issue if it hit them square in the face,” he said.
If the Allen campaign is slime, how could it be “beneath” its desperate flailing against the Webb campaign? And while the other side is basically calling your guy a slimeball, racist asshole, you’d think “political adviser” Chris LaCivita could do a little better than: ”Yeah, well, the don’t know what an issue even is!” What the hell is that? It’s stupid and lame and pathetic and slimey.
Whoever wins, we all lose. But if Allen loses, we all lose a little less.
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Technorati Tags: Jim, Webb, George, Allen, Virginia, Senate, Race, Washington, Post, Politics, Midterm, Elections, Racism,
From David Remnick’s recent profile in The New Yorker:
[Clinton] told them about learning to exercise more and suggested they watch a show on Nickelodeon called “Let’s Just Play Go Healthy Challenge.”
When the question period began, a chubby kid, no more than seven, nervously held the microphone and asked Clinton, “What if you don’t have the channel?”
His quavery voice betrayed such a sense of terror and deprivation that a lot of the kids laughed. What? No Nickelodeon? It’s basic cable!
Clinton had clearly heard the laughing and seen the terror in the kid’s eyes, and he sensed the embarrassment that would likely haunt his nights, and so he said, “A lot of people don’t have the channel. So that’s a good question. A great question.”
The jaws of life! The boy smiled. His whole body seemed to relax. The laughing stopped.
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Some guy decides to scrawl in black marker ”Kip Hawley is an Idiot” on the ziplock bag which he is using to transport his hair gel and toothpaste through airport security. Kip Hawley is the head of the Trasportation Security Administration or whatever. Guy apparently surprised at consequences:
He went strait [sic] to the TSA Supervisor on duty and boy did he come marching over to the checkpoint with fire in his eyes!
Go read the rest to find out what happens. You’ve had a hard day. You deserve it.
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Technorati Tags: Kip, Hawley, is, an, Idiot, Transportation, Security, Administration, Terrorism, Airport, Security, Wonkette
Filed under: International, Media, Midterm Elections, Politics, Uncategorized
Read it yourself here.
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Technorati Tags: National, Intelligence, Estimate, NIE, Bush, Declassified, Iraq, Terrorism, Al, Qaeda, Global, War, on, Terrorism
Vernon Robinson (R), frequently referred to a “The Black Jesse Helms,” is running for a NC House (NC-13) against Democratic incumbent Brad Miller. Here’s Robinson’s new ad:
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Technorati Tags: Brad, Miller, Vernon, Robinson, Campaign, Midterm, North, Carolina, House, of, Representatives, Politics, Elections, Republicans, Democrats
So the “Web Log of the Mercantile Library, Cincinatti, Ohio” is horrified that
This Human Season, Louise Dean’s completely stupendous book about Belfast in 1979 that will make you cry and forsake all other books unless you are completely heartless, is not on the Man Booker short list.
This interests me because it’s a novel about Belfast, and I lived in Belfast for a while. And there are some very good novels about Belfast, such as Robert McLiam Wilson’s Eureka Street or Eoin McNamee’s less good and more problematic novel Resurrection Man, a sardonic take on what is known as ”Troubles trash”, a reference to fiction born out of the nearly four-decade long conflict in Northern Ireland (roughly 600 novels by 200 authors). Also Glenn Patterson, Brian Moore and various other very fine and horrifying writers. Graham Greene once went to Belfast looking for evil, but he apparently didn’t find it and consequently did not publish a novel set there. Anyway, Belfast fiction is tricky because it’s difficult to represent honestly and unexploitatively the history of violence there, difficult to not overdo it, to paint a picture of Belfast which is all spy-thriller intrigue, all murderous psychopathology and religious friction, when in fact Belfast can be quite a nice town.
You can read The Guardian’s review of the novel here.
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Technorati Tags: Louise, Dean, This, Human, Season, Cincinatti, Mercantile, Library, Guardian, Belfast, Fiction, Northern, Ireland
Filed under: International, Media, Midterm Elections, Politics, Uncategorized
The damn liberal media is being mean to our fearless leader today (again), willfully refusing to accept his perfectly reasonable assertions that he has made America safer. Apparently the Times did not get the memo about the mothership not havin
g been attacked since 9/11.
three declassified pages from what is certainly a voluminous report told us what any American with a newspaper, television or Internet connection should already know. The invasion of Iraq was a cataclysmic disaster.
Cataclysmic? Let’s not get so excited.
By [Bush's] logic, the more the United States fights, the longer the war stretches on.
I don’t understand why the damn liberal media never holds the terrorists responsible. They are the terrorists, after all! We didn’t go searching for this war. They attacked us! We were just minding our own, uh, business. The Times has internalized all the form-fitting, vile hatred about America and Americans and is doing the terrorists’ bidding on its editorial pages, sad to say.
Then, Mr. Bush wanted Americans to focus on how dangerous Saddam Hussein was, and not on the obvious consequences of starting a war in the Middle East. Now, he wants voters to focus on how dangerous the world is, and not on his utter lack of ideas for what to do about it.
So The Times is saying it prefers to have Saddam Hussein still in power. Sheesh! What’s your plan, New York Times Editors, huh? What are your ideas? I can hear the Limbaugh speaking his truth to power now.
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Technorati Tags: President, George, Bush, Iraq, Terrorism, National, Intelligence, Estimate, Report, Declassification, War, on, Terrorism, Safety, Safer, Attacks, Homeland, New, York, Times, Editorial, Page, Fine, Art, of, Declassification
Filed under: Elections, International, Midterm Elections, Politics, Uncategorized
The president said the media accounts of the leak of the National Intelligence Estimate were meant to “create confusion in the minds of the American people” and suggested that the report had been leaked for political purposes.
It is impossible not to wonder if Bush has a sense of his own terrific irony, or if all that tired stuff about him being an idiot is actually, you know, true. By now the White House has considerable expertise in selectively releasing portions of classified government documents. What is really interesting about this story is Intelligence Chief John “Death Squad” Negroponte’s mastery of cognitive dissonance:
On Monday evening, Negroponte rejected the argument that the Iraq war had increased the terrorist threat against the United States.
Negroponte conceded that Iraq had become a training ground for a new generation of jihadists.
The terrorists which are being “bred” and trained in the killing fields of Iraq are, he says, not “really” interested in directing their murderous psychopathology at the U.S. proper. Right.
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Technorati Tags: George, W, Bush, National, Intelligence, Report, CNN, John, Negroponte, Iraq, Terrorism, Classified, Intelligence, Documents, Democrats, Republicans, Politics, Elections
How “big” is “BIG NEWS” when you have to label it as such? Anyway Steve Clemons is hysterical about the Bolton Senate confirmation hearing, which he says is “really, really dead.” It’s apparently a “wow” moment for him, even though it doesn’t mean that Bolton will be going away.
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Technorati Tags: John, Bolton, Ambassador, United, Nations, UN, Senate, Confirmation, Process, Steve, Clemons, Washington, Note, Huffington, Post
A few months ago I traveled to Budapest and found it to be one of the most interesting cities I’ve ever visited. I am not, by any means, an accomplished globetrotter, but I’ve been here and there and I was particula
rly struck by the Old World beauty of the rundown, economically stuggling two cities divided by the Danube. There is something about the Chain Bridge that approximates aesthetic perfection.
So it’s too bad about the international renown Budapest is attaining for the recent outbreak of violent social protest there due to its president’s highly frank remarks about the state of the national economy and the dispensation of the city’s political leadership (”we lied, morning, noon, and night”). Certainly, the city is not unaccustomed to such unrest, and its tricky history (with the Soviets, with the Nazis) suggests that it has the fortitude to emerge from the current crisis with class and resilience.
Ann Applebaum, one of the best columnists in the nation and who knows a thing or two about this part of the world, takes a fascinating look today in Slate. She uses the occasion of leaked truth-telling in Hungary as an opportunity to circle back to our present crisis in America (and the one we’ve created in Iraq). Applebaum laments, compellingly, the structural dishonesty that defines the modern-day political apparatus, without which no political agent can survive.
But this argument is ultimately flawed, because it is based on the idealistic principle that if only we allowed our politicians to admit mistakes we would be able to correct and prevent future, eggregiously erroneous courses of action. But this depends on the initial mistake being honest, and the evidence now is overwhelming that the Bush administration pretty much deliberately screwed the pooch on the Iraq war, intentionally cooked the books, hyped the threat, misled at will, cherry picked, etc. ad nauseam. And Applebaum’s argument also rests, at least in part, on the notion that we should not punish politicians for making mistakes, even if those mistakes were made in good faith. But why not. Elections are about responsibility. And I don’t think violence, such as that occuring in Hungary now, would be the immediate reaction of the American public. There would be anger and resentment, and then there would be decisions in ballot boxes.
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Technorati Tags: Ann, Applebaum, Slate, Hungary, Budapest, Violence, Social, Unrest,
Filed under: Uncategorized
Cringe-inducing CNN/Court TV bobblehead Nancy Grace, it has been discovered, is apparently a plagiarist. It bewilders me that people continue to commit intellectual theft these days when it is clear that they’re going to be found out. Not only is it unethical and lazy, it ain’t worth it.
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Technorati Tags: Nancy, Grace, CNN, Court, TV, Plagiarism, Hyperion, NYDN, Daily, Dish
Quick! Act now or you might miss the completely unfascinating and pedestrian debate occurring over at The Telegraph, a tit and then a tat in an entirely new theatre in what is apparently the still-ongoing Battle of the Sexes. An ill-advised and uninformed remark by BBC anchor Daisy Goodwin has ignited a dimwitted ‘debate’ between some guy plugging his forthcoming romance novel and journalist Liz Hunt on the question of–wait for it–whether men write compelling pieces of romance fiction!
I realize neither writer is allowed the space to engage seriously with the question, and why should they since the question itself is so unserious, but one might pause a moment to reflect on what it is, precisely, that romance fiction actually is? For Hunt, it is, predictably, Austen, Bronte, Mitchell. The Male Side, represented by Ray Connelly, appears to characterize romance fiction as any text which ‘brings a tear’, one that discusses ‘a bloke and his relationship’. It’s getting to damn deep for me already, and I don’t have the shoes for it. I realize this is all in good fun, but here’s some super-special nuggets of wisdom for your reading pleasure:
From Hunt:
“So they must seek that passion between the covers (of a book) and it is only another woman who really knows how to deliver it because she has been there – or would like to have been there – too.”
“I would argue that only a woman can truly capture these emotions in a credible way, because she has experienced them or can imagine experiencing them in a way that a man simply cannot.”
“Women writers are better at detail, too – and details are essential in creating a romantic build-up: what he wore, what she wore, how they were standing, how they moved, how they touched.”
And from Connelly:
“Teasing aside, it seems to me that most stories are about people in relationships, and how relationships change people.”
“Nearly always, relationships are about love and, yes, desire, too, and love inevitably involves romance in its many and varied forms. But neither men nor women have a monopoly on falling in love.”
Phew! I am just whirling from the complexity, the downright sophistication and intellectual rigour of the case presented. It’s going to be a tough one to adjudicate.
Let me swivel in my chair here and look upon my modest shelves to see if I can come up with anything, you know, which might settle the debate. Presumably the only thing required to falsify Goodwin’s assertion and Hunt’ defense is a persuasive counter-example. Connelly offered Flaubert and Tolstoy. I’ll add:
1. James Baldwin. Giovanni’s Room. I wonder why neither author considered even in passing the potential ‘romantic’ possibilities of queer lit.
2. Jamie O’Neill. At Swim Two Boys. Ditto.
3. Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Love in the Time of Cholera.
4. Ernest Hemmingway. A Farewell to Arms. One of the greatest American novels of the twentieth century. Also, a love story.
5. Thomas Hardy. Jude the Obscure/Tess of the D’urbervilles. Is Hardy’s representation of Tess inauthentic because he, as a man, could never have ‘experienced’ life as she would, as a woman? Some would be highly inclined to challenge the premise of the question.
And let’s not forget about Dante.
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Filed under: Blog Idiocy of the Day, Blog Idiocy of the Moment, Elections, Media, Midterm Elections, Politics, Uncategorized
She talks so much that it is as though she has something meaningful to add to the national dialogue, but alas all there is to Ephron are comments such as this:
“What surprised me most about the Clinton meltdown yesterday was that no one told him to pull up his socks.”
I think that fairly well says it all.
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Technorati Tags: Nora, Ephron, Huffington, Post, Bill, Clinton, Chis, Wallace, Fox, News, Socks
The photograph in the header is of the famous Cafe Hawelka in Vienna, which opened in 1939 and was a favorite haunting ground for the young John Irving (among others) while he was implementing his voluntary exile in Austria.
The Hawelka melange, a coffee drink involving frothed milk and a tinge of whipped cream which you apparently just must get! while in Vienna, is probably the best in the city, or so they tell me (it was tasty).
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Filed under: Blog Idiocy of the Day, Elections, Media, Midterm Elections, Politics, Uncategorized
With little apparent self-awareness, Bardford Plumer of TNR is reprimanding Slate for being contrarian for the sake of being contrarian:
“Good lord. From the folks who brought us “Deep down in his heart, John McCain is secretly a liberal,” and “Anti-Roe justices would be awesome for abortion rights,” it’s the latest bit of “unconventional” liberal wisdom . . .”
TNR! I agree with the premise and the substance of the critique (Slate is predictable these days), but to have it come from TNR is, well, it’s just too much.
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Technorati Tags: New, Republic, Magazine, Slate, Politics, Democrats, Republicans, Midterm, Election, Bardford, Plumer, Jacob, Weisberg
Salon has a piece today in which only 1 out of 3 of the former classmates alleging that George Allen used racist langauge as a young man are willing to attach his name to the accusations. It seems to me that if you’re going to call someone a racist, you ought to have the personal fortitude to do so without the warm blanket of anonymity.
Salon’s framing of Allen’s penchant for racism also seems distorted: “Allen has maintained that he never harbored any discriminatory attitudes toward blacks.” In fact it is more like Allen has basically acknowledged, as far as he can, his history of racism and has attempted in various overtly political ways to attone for it, such as his efforts to fund historically black colleges and his legislation to apologize for the lynching of blacks in the South, which emerged from his so-called civil rights pilgrammage.
But this is truly bizarre, and somewhat hard to believe:
“Shelton played football with Allen in the 1972 and 1973 seasons, according to the team media guides from those years. Shelton remembers Allen’s attitudes about race surfacing early in their relationship. At one point, Shelton says, Allen nicknamed him “Wizard,” after United Klans imperial wizard Robert Shelton. “He asked me if I was related at all,” Shelton remembers. “I knew of that name, and I said absolutely not.” Several former teammates confirmed that Shelton’s team nickname was “Wizard,” though no one contacted by Salon could confirm firsthand knowledge of the handle’s origin. “Everyone called me ‘Wizard’ that knows me from those days,” said Shelton. “My nickname stuck.”
Shelton said he also remembers a disturbing deer hunting trip with Allen on land that was owned by the family of Billy Lanahan, a wide receiver on the team. After they had killed a deer, Shelton said he remembers Allen asking Lanahan where the local black residents lived. Shelton said Allen then drove the three of them to that neighborhood with the severed head of the deer. “He proceeded to take the doe’s head and stuff it into a mailbox,” Shelton said.”
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Technorati Tags: George, Allen, Virginia, Senate, Race, Racism, Salon, Jim, Webb, Republicans, Midterm, Elections, Ken, Shelton
Immediate reactions from this morning’s Meet the Press debate between Sen. George “Macacca” Allen and former Secretary of the Na
vy Jim “I’m a little weird” Webb:
a.) Allen reconfirms status as slightly dim.
b.) Allen reluctant to distance himself from role as George Bush’s bitch.
c.) Webb is odd.
d.) Webb apparently not quick enough to answer Russert’s “How are you different on Iraq” question by saying (1) I personally warned Allen that Iraq was a bad idea and (2) Allen made the wrong decision (and would make the wrong decision again!) and should consequently be punished for it. Elections aren’t just about the future–they’re also about ceremonially firing the incompetent boobs who run the show.
d.) All going fairly well for Webb until he decided to stick with his unfortunate notion that women shouldn’t lead combat units in the military.
e.) The choice superficially appears to be between a confederate flag-waving, South-will-rise-again! jock who uses words he’s ’never heard before’ and a slightly odd, former Republican misogynist who, at the very least, seems somewhat intelligent.
Good luck, Virginia! You deserve it.
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Technorati Tags: Jim, Webb, George, Allen, Tim, Russert, Meet, the, Press, Senate, Debate, Virginia, Midterm, Election, Campaign, 2006, Republican, Democrat, Iraq, War, on, Terrorism,
